Leader of the House of Lords

House of Lords: Legislation

Lord Blencathra: To ask the Leader of the House,  further to the request made to the Leader by Lord Blencathra on 12 January (HL Deb col 1535), whether he will (1) send a printed copy of the Cabinet Office Guide to Making Legislation to every civil servant in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel with an instruction to read it, and (2) amend section E of the Guide which begins with the sentence “The House of Lords is usually the more difficult House to take legislation through…”.

Lord True: On instruction from the relevant policy department, the Office of Parliamentary Counsel are responsible for the drafting of Government legislation.In light of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee's report Democracy Denied? The urgent need to rebalance power between Parliament and the Executive (HL 106), the Guide to Making Legislation was updated last summer. This included integrating a link to the Committee's revised guidance. Along with the Committee's report and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report Government by Diktat: A call to return power to Parliament (HL 105), the guide was circulated to all officials in Whitehall responsible for preparing and passing primary legislation.The Guide to Making Legislation is usually updated annually and I have asked the responsible officials to consider how to best express in the Guide the different procedures, practices and challenges posed by legislating in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. I hope very much that in that process officials will take carefully into account points made by Your Lordships in what was an important debate.

Department of Health and Social Care

Ambulance Services and Hospital Beds

Lord Warner: To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect the additional (1) ambulances, and (2) hospital beds, announced on 30 January to be staffed and in operational use by patients.

Lord Markham: The Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services was published on 30 January 2023 and sets out plans for increasing National Health Service capacity. A copy of the plan is attached.The plan includes over 800 new ambulances, of which 100 are specialist mental health ambulances, in 2023/24, with the majority of these on the road by next winter. There will be an additional 5,000 staffed beds in 2023/24 as part of the permanent bed base for next winter.Attachment (pdf, 636.3KB)

NHS: Staff

Lord Warner: To ask His Majesty's Government what forecasts they have made of the number of extra NHS staff required to make operational the additional (1) ambulances, and (2) hospital beds, announced on 30 January; and what estimates they have made of the revenue costs of employing those extra staff.

Lord Markham: NHS England has asked systems as part of the 2023/24 planning round to develop and implement integrated urgent and emergency care workforce plans based on capacity and demand assessments in line with local population need. As such, these estimates are still under consideration.

Health Professions

Lord Warner: To ask His Majesty's Government what forecasts they have made of the number of additional (1) GPs, (2) nurses, (3) hospital consultants, and (4) radiographers, they will need by 2030, compared with the numbers currently available, according to the latest available data.

Lord Markham: To support the overall health workforce, the Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term plan for the National Health Service workforce for the next 15 years.The Government has committed to publishing the high-level workforce plan this year, including independently verified projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed in five, 10 and 15 years’ time.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

UNRWA: Finance

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with international partners, in particular those in the Gulf States, to help to fund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), following the statement on 24 January by the UNRWA Commissioner-General that the Agency has no more reliability or predictability of funding and a deficit of $70 million.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: We are longstanding supporters of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). I reinforced this message during a visit to a UK donor funded school facing demolition on 12 January. We are aware that the agency has faced funding shortfalls in recent years, which has made it even more challenging to continue service delivery. On 22 September 2022 in New York, I attended a Ministerial dialogue on UNRWA's financial situation where I reiterated UK support for the agency and the need for the international community to support it to be on a more viable financial footing. In FY 2022/2023, the UK provided UNRWA with £18.7 million, including £13 million for UNRWA's Programme Budget for spend in OPTs, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; £2 million for work in Gaza and £3.7 million for food assistance - both under UNRWA's OPTs Emergency Appeal.

Libya: Politics and Government

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current political situation in Libya and the prospects for elections in that country, following the reported collapse of talks to amend the draft constitution.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: Free, fair, transparent and inclusive presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible across the country remain the clear will and aspiration of the Libyan people who deserve a unified and democratically-elected government that can govern for the good of the whole country and its people, as well as a legislature with a renewed mandate. We call on all Libyan actors and key stakeholders to work with Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily and the UN, to fulfil their responsibilities to the Libyan people on the political, security, economic and human rights tracks, in order to deliver long-term stability, security and prosperity.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Food: Waste

Lord Shipley: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that consideration of food waste on farms is included in financial planning and subsidy development.

Lord Benyon: The Government supports a productive and efficient farming sector that can prevent waste occurring in the first place. For instance, we are supporting investment in productivity-enhancing equipment, technology and infrastructure through the Farming Investment Fund. This provides grants to farmers, foresters and growers (including contractors to these sectors) that will help their businesses to prosper through improving their productivity whilst enhancing the environment.

Sugar Beet: Pesticides

Lord Pendry: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the damaging effect, in particular on sugar beet crops, of pesticides used to prevent attacks from aphids.

Lord Benyon: Emerging sugar beet seedlings and young plants are vulnerable to feeding by aphids, which transmit several viruses, known collectively as Yellows Virus (YV). Neonicotinoid seed treatments provide emerging beet crops with highly effective protection.   Following an application made by British Sugar and the National Farmers Union, the Government has granted an emergency authorisation for the limited and controlled use of a neonicotinoid seed treatment on the 2023 sugar beet crop. This decision has not been taken lightly and is based on robust assessment of the environmental and economic risks and benefits. The Government’s statement of reasons for this decision has been published on gov.uk. It is important that the Government understands the potential environmental impacts of the emergency authorisation. To further develop that understanding the applicant is required to carry out a range of environmental monitoring activities as a condition of the emergency authorisation. The Government is supplementing these activities with its own monitoring projects. These projects include the monitoring of residues of thiamethoxam (the neonicotinoid active ingredient in the authorised seed treatment) and its metabolite, clothianidin, in various parts of the environment, to gain a better understanding of the potential exposure of non-target organisms to the active substance in the seed treatment. This includes the soil of treated fields; the soil, vegetation and pollen from field margins; honey from honeybee hives in close proximity to sugar beet fields; and rivers in sugar beet catchments. Further detail of these projects can be found within the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) emergency registration report on Cruiser SB, published on gov.uk. Defra has also funded a study assessing the chronic toxicity of thiamethoxam to adult honeybees. This has allowed HSE to conduct a robust assessment of the chronic risks to honeybees via different routes of exposure. Details and results of this study can be found within HSE’s emergency registration report, published on gov.uk.

Home Office

Police: Recruitment

Lord German: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Sharpe of Epsom on 25 January (HL4660), what are the names of the 10 police forces who do not conduct a post Online Assessment Process face-to-face interview.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: In the response to the question tabled on 12 January, it was stated that there were 10 forces that did not hold a post Online Assessment Process interview as part of the police recruitment process. Further information provided by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing shows that this figure is nine – one force had incorrectly stated it did not complete an interview. According to information provided by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing these nine forces are Avon & Somerset, City of London, Dorset, Hampshire, Humberside, Norfolk, Suffolk, West Midlands and Wiltshire. These forces engage with all candidates face-to-face as part of the recruitment process. Six forces (Avon & Somerset, City of London, Dorset, Humberside, Norfolk and Suffolk) routinely require applicants to attend a face-to-face meeting through familiarisation events or similar; the remaining three have face-to-face engagement at other stages in the recruitment process, such as during the medical and fitness assessments. Following engagement with the Home Office, the College of Policing will write to Chief Constables in early February with updated guidance on post assessment interviews that will strengthen the requirement for forces to use the College of Policing’s standard post Online Assessment Process interview process, as part of the police recruitment process.

Cabinet Office

Government Departments: a:gender

Lord Blencathra: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the activities of a:gender within Government departments, including its support for a statement by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention dated 29 November 2022 which describes the gender critical movement as “fascist” and “genocidal”.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: A:gender is one of the cross-government networks which operates across the Civil Service. All of these networks are expected to operate within the Civil Service Code and its values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

Overseas Trade: Ethiopia

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the value of UK direct imports and exports to Ethiopia.

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the value of UK direct imports and exports to Sudan.

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government what is the value of UK direct imports and exports to Eritrea.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.A response to the noble Lord Bishop’s Parliamentary Question of 30 January is attached. Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National StatisticianThe Lord Bishop of St AlbansHouse of LordsLondonSW1A 0PW 1 February 2023 Dear Lord Bishop,As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking the value of UK direct imports and exports to Ethiopia; the value of UK direct imports and exports to Sudan; and the value of UK direct imports and exports to Eritrea (HL5226; HL5227; HL5228).The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish UK trade data at country level in our UK total trade, all countries release[1] .Data on UK trade with Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea for 2016-2021 can be found in Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3 respectively. Yours sincerely,Professor Sir Ian Diamond[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/datasets/uktotaltradeallcountri esseasonallyadjustedUKSA Response to HL5226, HL5227, HL5228 (pdf, 128.8KB)

Treasury

Duty Free Allowances: Airports

Baroness Hoey: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that people living in Northern Ireland who fly from airports in Northern Ireland to EU countries can avail themselves of the same duty free benefits that are available to people flying from airports in Great Britain.

Baroness Penn: Duty-free shopping is available to individuals buying excise goods when leaving the UK, depending on their destination. It is available when leaving Great Britain to go to any destination outside the UK, although duty may be liable upon arrival, subject to allowances applied by that country. Individuals who leave Northern Ireland to go to any destination outside the UK or the EU may also benefit from duty free, subject to the same controls. In the case of EU destinations and trips to Ireland, individuals who leave Northern Ireland are able to carry unlimited duty paid products to take to the destination or on return from that destination, and no further duty is due on arrival or return. Introducing duty-free shopping for individuals moving between Northern Ireland and the EU or Ireland would require the introduction of allowances and controls to ensure duty is paid where those allowances are exceeded. Otherwise, unlimited amounts of duty-free tobacco and alcohol could flow between Ireland and Northern Ireland, undermining domestic suppliers who must charge excise on these goods, and the UK’s ability to collect tax revenues to fund public services.

Overseas Trade

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government how they intend to identify trusted traders for the purposes of the UK border.

Baroness Penn: HMRC operates a range of customs and excise Trusted Trader Schemes that give traders access to a range of facilitations and simplifications. Once authorised for a particular scheme, traders are trusted to operate that particular facilitation. This trusted status is recognised in HMRC border processes.

Financial Services

Viscount Waverley: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to counter future shocks to the UK’s financial system.

Baroness Penn: Since 2008, the UK financial system has been significantly strengthened, and UK banks now hold over three times more capital than they did at the time of the financial crisis. The government has introduced a resolution regime which empowers the Bank of England to manage the failure of financial institutions in a way that protects depositors and maintains financial stability, while limiting the risks to public funds. The Bank of England is now at the centre of the regulatory framework, and through the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) is responsible for identifying, monitoring and addressing risks to the system as a whole, working alongside the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) who supervise individual firms. The FPC has a range of tools, including regular stress testing of the financial system to severe scenarios. HM Treasury participates in FPC discussions through its non-voting membership on the Committee. The FPC’s December Financial Stability Report (FSR) set out its current assessment of the stability of the UK financial system. The FPC judge that major UK banks’ capital and liquidity positions remain strong, and the banking system is resilient to the current economic outlook, with capacity to support lending, even if economic conditions are worse than forecast. The FSR was also an important milestone in the ongoing lessons learned process following volatility in the gilt markets in 2022. The government supports this work and continues to work closely with domestic and international regulators to enhance resilience in market-based finance.